The second part of our trip started with a drive to
Germany’s Rhine Valley. This couple-hour
drive turned out to be the hardest of the trip.
Usually, because of his reflux, Braxton is happiest in a car seat or in
a sling. That said, this morning he
decided he really just didn’t want to be strapped in there. AT ALL.
We stopped for breaks when he started to protest and as soon as he was
out of the seat his tears would turn to huge grins. We’re definitely on his time, not ours
anymore! We did finally make it and got
on a half-day cruise of the Upper Middle Rhine that was as beautiful as we were
told it would be. There were ruined
castles, quaint towns, and acres of vineyards along the steep slopes lining the
river. We started in Rudesheim and
sailed a few hours to St. Goarshausen, then took the train back to our car.
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| Vineyards and cute towns along the Rhine River Valley |
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| Sleeping baby with a ruined castle in the background. |
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| I can't remember who got this adorable hoodie for us, but I love it! |
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| Old customs building. |
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| Ruined castle. |
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| Workers in the vineyard |
The last stretch of our trip went through Luxembourg,
through Belgium, and then back home. I
had wanted to stop in Luxembourg City to walk around but Braxton was sleeping as
we passed the exit and as the saying goes, we let him lie. So instead, we kept on to Orval Abbey, a Trappist
brewery in south Belgium. Belgium has
six of the ten total Trappist breweries in the world – Orval, Chimay,
Rochefort, Westvleteren, Westmalle, and Achel. To be considered ‘Trappist’, beer must be
brewed within the walls of a monastery by the monks themselves or under their
supervision, and the beer only produced to fund the monks’ austere lifestyle
(any extra money is donated to charity).
Orval’s beer isn’t our favorite (and honestly doesn’t taste much like
the other Trappist beers) but the abbey was incredibly beautiful and we were
glad we stopped. The monks live in a new
abbey, which isn’t open to visitors, and the brewery is open only one day a
year but we were able to walk around the gorgeous ruins of the old abbey and
had an Orval beer and Orval cheese at a pub just down the road. The whole experience was great except for the
old man sitting at a nearby table who doled out as much parenting advice
(namely, what we were doing wrong) as he could in broken English. I shouldn’t have cared, but it’s the first
time I’ve had scornful parenting advice from a stranger and it really got under
my skin! Ouch.
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| We're suckers for gardens anyway ,but this medicinal garden was top notch. |
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| Enjoyed the beer and cheese more than the parenting advice. |
We thought about staying the night at the inn connected to the
pub but wanted to drive a bit further while Brax would be sleeping, so headed
to a well-rated hotel nearer to our next stop, Rochefort. We were so thankful that we had decided to
keep driving! The GPS took us through
some tiny roads through Belgium farmland and small villages, and the hotel was
newly renovated, spotless, and had a bathtub!
It’s the little things, isn’t it? Some storms rolled through that night and
whether it was the sound of rain on the windows or the rough day we had had, the
night was the best we all slept in weeks.
To top it off, the breakfast served at the hotel included the best
chocolate croissants I’ve ever had (and I’ve eaten my fair share), tasty prosciutto,
excellent coffee, and amazing bread.
What a great start to the day!
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| Gorgeous Belgium countryside. |
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| Most of the houses had this distinctive tile on their sides. |
We packed up the car and drove the half hour to the town of
Rochefort. The monastery there opened in
1595 (!) but unfortunately isn’t open to tourists. Chris wanted to have a Rochefort beer in
Rochefort, though, so after stocking up on the 8% and 10% beer and souvenirs we sat in a café and Chris
had a 6%. Yes it was 10:00 in the morning,
but when in Rome…
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| Brunch of champions. |
From Rochefort we made our way to the Saint Sixtus Abbey. Chris’s
last ‘bucket list’ thing to do in Europe was to buy the best beer in the world at
the Westvleteren Trappist brewery in the St. Sixtus Abbey. The Westvleteren 12% (they also make a blonde
and an 8%) has consistently been voted the best tasting beer in the world. Apparently all major beer sights have come to
the same conclusion, but most importantly we find it to be excellent. The monks produce just enough of the beer to
provide them with basics of food and shelter, so the demand is much, much more
than the supply. Although the beer is
only about 2 Euro per bottle from the source it is difficult to find and very
expensive in the States. You can buy two
cases of beer directly from the monastery IF you can get through by phone
during a narrow window to make an appointment.
The line opens about a week out and I’m not exaggerating, Chris called
115 times before he got through! The
whole last bit of our trip was planned around getting to Westvleteren by our
2:00 appointment time and let me tell you, it was a CLOSE call despite leaving
some extra time for Braxton. Close, as in we got there at 1:58. HAHAHA! Just
adds to the experience, right?! The two
cases of beer pushed the luggage in our car to a ridiculous level. And then we drove the 15 minutes to Saint
Bernardus where Chris stocked up on 3 MORE cases of beer. His purchases
certainly put the two bottles of champagne I bought at Moet & Chandon to
shame. The car was full before we left
for this trip and by the time we got back to the Chunnel the tail pipe was
almost scraping the road.
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| Picking up the Westvleteren 12% |
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| St. Bernardus |
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| "I'm giving us a 20% chance of making it to Westvleteren, babe"... as we're driving along narrow farm roads in the middle of seemingly nowhere with 10 minutes to go until our appointment time. |
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| Hops |
We let Braxton drive for a while on the way back to England,
and then he ate and slept the entire way from the crossing back to the house,
another 2.5-hour stretch. Our kid
doesn’t take naps longer than 45 minutes as a rule, so this was an incredible
feat! It was the perfect end to an
amazingly full week away from home.
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